Men's Soccer Caps Unbeaten Regular Season

Montclair, NJ (10/29/08) – Sophomore defender Thomas Benack (Sparta, NJ / Lenape Valley)
scored the tying goal and then assisted on the game-winning tally as
third-ranked Montclair State capped off just the sixth undefeated
regular-season in athletic history and its second unbeaten NJAC slate
in three years with a 2-1 victory over New Jersey City University at
Sprague Field on Wednesday evening.

Junior Joseph Cullen ( Clementon, NJ / Highland)
scored the winning goal with 18:10 remaining as the Red Hawks closed
out their regular-season schedule at 18-0-0. Head coach Brian
Sentowski’s group joined four football squads (1947, 1960, 1964, 1982)
and the 1989 men’s lacrosse team as the only teams in MSU athletic
history to go through their schedule without a loss. Montclair also
matched its 2006 squad as the only teams in program history to go
undefeated and untied in conference play (9-0-0).

The
Red Hawks, the two-time defending conference champions, will be the No.
1 seed in the tournament which gets underway on November 1. MSU earns a
first-round bye in the tournament and takes on the either No. 5 seed
TCNJ or No. 4 seed William Paterson in the semifinals at Sprague Field
on Tuesday, November 4 at 7:30 pm.

Travis
Mckoy ( Maplewood, NJ / Columbia) scored once for New Jersey City
(10-5-2, 4-4-1 NJAC) which dropped its second straight, and fell into
the No. 6 spot for the upcoming NJAC Tournament. Sixth-seeded NJCU will
face No. 3 seed Rutgers-Camden in the opening round of the tournament
at Community Park in Camden on Saturday. Last Sunday, the Gothic
Knights fell to the Scarlet Raptors, 3-0.

In
what would be another outstanding match between two of the league’s
most successful teams over the last several seasons, MSU and NJCU
played through a scoreless first half. The Knights outshot Montclair,
5-3 in the opening 45 minutes, however Red Hawks goalkeeper Nick Mele (Delran, NJ / Delran)
made three saves, including two early stops against Edison Bilbao
(Carteret, NJ / St. Benedict’s Prep). Meanwhile NJCU netminder Andre
Viola ( Clifton, NJ / St. Joseph’s (Montvale)) helped keep Montclair
off the board with one save while his defense came up with a huge team
save at the 22:56 mark.

In the
second half, Mckoy would get the Knights on the board with his eighth
goal of the season off an assist from Gonzalo Dapia ( Kearny, NJ /
Kearny) at 50:52. But that lead would last just seven minutes as Benack
banged home a header from John Esposito ( Hillside, NJ / Hillside) for his second goal of the year and a 1-1 tie with 31:54 to play.

Each
team would get off a shot over the next 13 minutes before Montclair
would come up with the game-winner. Benack set up Cullen for the
latter’s sixth goal of the season and his fourth game-winning score at
the 71:50 mark.

Moments after the
go-ahead goal, NJCU would get a chance however Mele denied Cristhian
Acuna’s ( East Newark, NJ / Harrison) shot, one of four by Mele in the
contest.

Viola finished with two saves as Montclair State led in shots, 9-8 while collecting seven corner kicks to NJCU’s two.